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of millions was born the Green Revolution. Brilliant agricultural scientists like Norman Borlaug dedicated their lives to unlocking the secrets of seeds, and ultimately increasing the production of basic foods of the world - like wheat, rice and maize (corn).
• Tragically, hunger persists today, but on a smaller scale. One American farmer now feeds 155 people, and one-eighth of the world's population is starving or near starvation. By making tough decisions and focusing our precious and limited resources into agricultural science and food production, we have been able to address global hunger in a very meaningful way.
• The drought of 2012 earned a place in history books as one of the hottest and driest on record in South Dakota and the Midwest. More than a quarter century earlier, the region experienced a similar drought of epic proportion. The drought of 2012 and 1974 were nearly equal in their potential for devastation.
• But there is one critical difference: science. In 2012, science-driven changes in farming produced an additional $3.1 billion dollars in South Dakota crop yields that were not possible in 1974.
• Research breakthroughs have made it possible to grow crops with substantially less water. It's a nearly equal combination of better crop genetics, and better science-driven management techniques. More than half of the scientific breakthroughs are in the form of management practices used by farmers, and are the product of SDSU's research efforts and that from our land grant university partners. 
• Science helps us all take small steps. Sometimes the steps occur over generations making it difficult to see and understand the value of what has been accomplished. But we know that the return on investment for every dollar in agricultural re

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